10 Great Black Metal Albums

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Essentials of the genre.

By Carlos Ramirez

Judging by the reader comments on some of the recent metal articles here, it seems like many of you love black-metal as much as we do. Critically speaking, it hasn't been all wine and roses for the genre. Actually, it's often been treated like metal's rotten stepchild. Sure, some of the records mentioned below got their fair share of press adoration but outside of the usual outlets, the majority of the black-metal scene still doesn't the coverage it probably deserves.

To kick off the New Year IGN has complied a list of 10 essential albums in the black-metal pantheon. So whether you're new to the metal thing or you're a lifer, these full-lengths are absolute must-haves in your home.

Arguably the album that sparked the 90's black-metal fever that still lives on today, A Blaze in the Northern Sky was pivotal for many reasons. For starters, the band who created it, Darkthrone, were originally a technical death-metal band more in the style of Entombed, Autopsy, and Death than the primal, stripped-down attack showcased on their later material. After the intricately arranged songs of their debut album, Soulside Journey, the band abandoned the flashy riffing and went into the studio with a new found adoration for the black-metal sounds of bands like Bathory and Mayhem. Although the band have always maintained that A Blaze in the Northern Sky wasn't a truly black-metal album because there were still some guitar parts left over from their earlier style but the raw production and streamlined performances tells a different story. Songs like "Paragon Belial" and the title track still are every bit as cold and caustic today as they were back in 1992.

Lead by guitarist/singer/songwriter Jon Nödtveidt, Sweden's Dissection was one of the best melodic black-metal outfits the underground has ever produced. Their world-class musicianship and accomplished songwriting made them one of the firebrands of the genre. Their previous album, The Somberlain proved Dissection were a force to be reckoned with but 1996's Storm of the Light's Bane was on another level completely. Unlike the crude almost punk infused simplicity that many of their counterparts went with, Nödtveidt adorned the album with flashy riffs and the kinds of solos that revealed a neo-classical influence only hinted at on their earlier releases. A true wizard of the art, Nödtveidt sadly lost out to the demons that crippled him throughout his final years. In 1997 he was convicted of being an accessory to a murder that happened earlier that year. He served prison time and restarted Dissection again when he was released in 2004. Two years later the musician was found dead in his apartment after he shot himself inside a circle of lit candles. This is the kind of ghastly drama that has followed black-metal for most of its history and made it a frequent target of the media throughout Europe. There's no question Nödtveidt had haunting issues but the music he left behind speaks for itself.